There's A Reason To Play Aliens: Colonial Marines Again

I know it's a tad impossible, but hear me out. Let's go back to the launch of Aliens: Colonial Marines (ACM). Remember the fury, the outrage, the disappointment. Most of all, remember what was missing.

Now think back to that time, but with one difference. What if Aliens: Colonial Marines was balanced, suspenseful, and enjoyable to play?

It's not just the AI that's gotten a tune-up though: the mod reworks the game from top to bottom, including the graphics, animations, xenomorph behaviour, the marines, as well as a complete rebalancing of all the guns.

The idea is to transform ACM from a joke into the thrilling Aliens game it should have always been. Have a read of the recent tweaks to the AI, and you'll get the picture.

Xeno Lurker
Thinking rate increased 200% for better reactions
Speed and Acceleration reworked with sprinting enabled for more varied movement speeds
Pounce distances greatly lowered
Melee Encounter completely reworked to be hard, but not impossible. used sooner and more frequently
Cover mechanics greatly improved as well as shifting and idle action (like taunts) delays removed
Stalking mechanics also improved through removal of delays and increasing completion time windows. Distances pushed much further out so that the Lurker will use even more level space!
Melee Attack mechanics reworked to be more aggressive once close
Dodging while standing enabled
Dodge delay removed
Health lowered to help with its greatly increased lethality
Hissing, clicking and growling's frequency and volume increased
Footstep noise volume increased
Xeno Soldier
Thinking rate increased 500% to compensate for increased speed, agility and wall usage
Speed and Acceleration increased slightly to help animation blending
Melee Kill factors and chance significantly reduced so that it happens much less often
Attacking and flanking mechanic delays removed and state switching modified to prefer Crouch mode.
Melee Attack mechanics reworked so the aliens stand up and unleash a fury of claw attacks at anything nearby
Stalking mechanics modified to switch back to attacking or Crouched mode more often
Retreat delays removed so they return immediately to attack/stalk/crouch/stand
Will seek cover if taking damage while standing (and return to crouch quickly)
Dodge delay removed
Health lowered to help with its greatly increased lethality
Damage lowered to help with its greatly increased lethality
Hissing frequency and volume increased
Footstep noise volume increased

Really says a lot about the state of ACM if modders are increasing the thinking rate of the xenos by as much as 500%. It's worth noting that the changes are meant to rebalance the single-player/co-op campaign, not the multiplayer. "When hosting everyone should have the mod installed, otherwise some players will be disadvantaged/overpowered," the creator warns.

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Comments

Hahahahah this is as close to gaming PTSD as I'd ever experienced. Oh god this game.

* I was promised a Wii U version utilising the Gamepad's screen as a motion tracker.

* Sega Australia was very dodgy and actually allowed a street date break to occur in Australia/ Aussie pre-orders to be collected at EB/etc early, in the hours before the review embargo was actually up in the US and the rest of the world. Australians = lambs to the fucking slaughter

*More people unwittingly buying what seemed like a cool game (which really wasn't) without a review to read first played right into Sega/Gearbox's hands

*I got wind of the early release (it was a Friday/Saturday) and while I didn't pre-order the Loader Edition or whatever they bloody well called it, I stood in line and heard cashiers telling punters 'it is apparently really good' etc.

*I bought the Xbox 360 version of the game, got home, and started playing it as reviews were rolling out. I kept playing, giving them game the benefit of the (ever fading) doubt.

*To say I was making the best out of a bad situation is putting it fucking mildly.

*This may be Stockholm Syndrome but the early bit up until the reveal of the first Alien (I think it's in a coccon area?) was actually promisingly well done.

*"Well, shit in my breakfast"

*I had enough of an inkling before I booted the game for the first time to crank it right down to Easy mode and finished the game fast.

*The same cashier, when I told them I was returning the game within the seven days money back period and I *had* in fact finished it, tried telling me they don't usually accept games back after people complete them. An exception was made here. Fancy that. I went and did this again with Bioshock Infinite at some point.

*The cliffhanger/teaser ending was more of a threat - "WE'LL DO IT AGAIN WE SWEAR. YOU WANNA GET NUTS LET'S GET NUTS."

*I was then very very weary of Alien Isolation before it released, I still got that game (PC version) day one and in the end was not all that enamoured with the whole thing, but I enjoyed it enough in fits and starts. This is directly linked to my past experience with ACM. If you were lucky enough to have never played ACM, yet played Isolation, you probably thought Isolation was a god-damn revelation.

*Oh sweet summer child.

Phew.

Did I black out for a minute there or was there actually an Aliens Colonial Marines story on this website?

Randy is a bold-faced lying piece of shit and I'll never buy a Gearbox game again*.
I was pretty disgusted that he would do that video on how absolutely thrilled he/Gearbox was to have been granted the rights to Aliens, and how important it was - only to pass it off to some other company while Gearbox focused on Bordermeme 2.

They didn't deserve the license.

Also he stared right down the camera and sold DNF, full well knowing what the product was like.
"me me me if it hadn't been for Gearbox DNF would never have been released me me me"
Not an excuse!

The 2010 version was one of the rare games that I didn't finish... I got bored of the repeating melee kill animations, and combined with the fact that the game kept glitching out and crashing, I just gave up on it.

AVP2 (2001) is the best of the bunch. The campaign was good, the multiplayer was fantastic, and I had 0 issues with it over dozens (possibly hundreds) of hours of SP and MP games.

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